In the business area of qualifying suppliers of goods and services, methods and systems are known in current art that allow customers of a supplier service to invite suppliers to join a network of suppliers, and that also allow the supplier to add himself to the network through a self-service mechanism, and further, that allow the supplier to start collaborating and transacting with participants on the network once the supplier has been certified.
The currently known invitation process allows a company who is a customer of a supplier service, such as Rearden Commerce, or Rearden Commerce itself, to use the supplier portal service to send an email or other type of communication (letter, phone call, etc.) to indicate to the supplier that someone wishes them to join the network and begin transacting. The invitation may contain a custom message and other information provided by the supplier service and the inviter.
The supplier representative may be able to click on something in the email invitation that takes him to a web page hosted by the supplier service, where he can fill out an electronic application to join the network. This application may contain information about Service Level Agreements (SLAB), transaction types, transaction methods, billing process, technical integration agreements, etc.
What is clearly needed is a system and method for an enhanced, automated qualifying process that can do an automated or partially automated evaluation of the supplier and provide different levels of certification as a result; and further, a system and method that can then supply a collaboration toolkit for the supplier to interact in an automated way with the supplier service and its customers. Furthermore, support functions in the portal may be used to simplify or automate interactions, in particular with small, independent contractors that do not have a large in-house Information Technology department.